Removal of dust is very important in processes for painting or otherwise coating articles insofar as such dust particles will form blemishes in the finish of the article. Dust removal by wiping is frequently counterproductive because such contact can introduce further contamination in the form of lint or other extraneous matter. It has been found in many instances that brushes may be employed to remove fine particles from a surface prior to coating and such brushes are called tack brushes.
Feather brushes have been found particularly well suited for use as tack brushes because the feathers are soft and therefore not prone to mar delicately finished surfaces and furthermore, the feathers do not have a tendency to shed contamininating particles. The feathers of ratites, such as ostriches and emus, are presently favored for the fabrication of such brushes. Ratite feathers have been found to develop and hold a static electrical charge causing them to attract and retain dust particles from a surface. Furthermore, ratite feathers can be made to rapidly give up their static charge and deposit particles of dust attached thereto by subjecting the charged feathers to an ionizing source. Other feathers, including synthetic substitutes may be employed likewise in the fabrication of useful brushes and accordingly, the term "feathers" as utilized herein is meant to apply to all such natural and synthetic materials.
In a typical coating operation, relatively large area tack brushes are utilized. Heretofore, such brushes have been fabricated by rather cumbersome techniques. For example, the shafts of feathers were affixed to an arbor or similar base by winding wire thereabout. In other instances, a plurality of holes were drilled into a base and the shafts of feathers were set into those holes and affixed with adhesive material. In yet other processes, the shafts of the feathers are adhesively affixed to a first supporting member, and a second member is laminated over the shafts. Such previously employed techniques are relatively lengthy to implement, do not allow for precise positioning of the feathers during brush fabrication, and produce an article having low durability.
The present invention provides a rapid, easy to implement process for the production of feather brushes. As will be described in greater detail hereinbelow, the present invention allows for ready and adjustable positioning of feathers during the fabrication of brushes. Furthermore, the brushes produced thereby can be formed as disks, and a plurality of such disks may be stacked upon a common arbor so as to provide a generally elongated tack brush adapted to clean large areas. The fact that a large tack brush can be assembled from a plurality of disks confers additional advantage insofar as the resultant contour of the large area tack brush may be controlled to a predetermined profile by selecting disks of varying diameters, thereby allowing the tack brush to accommodate irregularly shaped objects. Furthermore, the use of a plurality of disk-shaped brushes of the present invention permits replacement of worn sections of a large area tack brush without the necessity for replacement of the entire brush. In other instances, the brushes may be manufactured to still different configurations.
As will be described in greater detail hereinbelow, the present invention encompasses the use of a resilient body of material such as a foamed polymer to support the shafts of feathers in a predetermined and readjustable relationship upon a support member. Once the proper alignment of feathers is obtained, an adhesive potting compound is utilized to form a solid base binding the feathers in the predetermined and adjusted relationship.
As previously mentioned, the prior art methods involved drilling holes in a base and inserting feathers thereinto, on laminating feather shafts into a base. Techniques of this type do not allow for repositioning of the feathers once they are affixed and accordingly, precisely contoured and dimensioned feather brushes cannot be fabricated by such techniques. U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,278 discloses the fabrication of a feather duster by such techniques.
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,432 a method for the fabrication of a decorative feather necklace or lei by insertion of relatively small feathers into a foam base. The method disclosed therein is not capable of being adapted to produce a strong article suitable for use as a tack brush because the feathers are not subsequently embedded in a potting material so as to form a rigid base.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,383 discloses the fabrication of a pile carpet by a technique which includes pulling loops of yarn through a foam base and subsequently gluing the backs of those loops to the base. The object in the '383 patent is to fabricate a relatively flexible carpet while preventing unravelling of the pile loops. Accordingly, the disclosure teaches the fabrication of a flexible bound aggregate of loops and does not teach the formation of a relatively rigid base suitabie for use as the backing member of a brush. Therefore, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,383 patent provides no teaching useful in the manufacture of feather brushes.
It will then be appreciated that the present invention provides for improved, durable feather brushes and methods for their manufacture by a technique which is novel, easy to implement and capable of providing precisely configured brushes readily adapted to be utilized as tack brushes for contoured surfaces.